Many devices used in diverse applications, including electrical components, require that an electrically conductive (such as a metal, metal-plated, or carbon) contact be slid across a surface comprising polymeric and regions formed from metals or other electrically conductive materials. An example of such a component is an electrical switch in which one or more contacts are moved from position to position during operation. In some positions, a contact may be contacting a metal (or other electrically conductive) surface and in others the same contact may be contacting a polymeric surface that may be a part of the switch housing. The electrically conductive materials used for such contacts may be relatively soft. In such cases, the act of sliding the contact across the polymeric surface may abrade the surface of the contact, especially when the polymeric material contains mineral fillers and/or fibrous reinforcing agents. The electrically conductive particles abraded from the electrically conductive contact can become embedded in the plastic, thus reducing the operability of the device (by, for example, creating an undesired conductive path between the electrically conductive regions of the surface). Furthermore, the contact could be worn down to a point where the device no longer operates reliably. This can be particularly problematic when the electrically conductive contact is a thin metal plated surface.
Since it is often necessary or desirable to use mineral fillers and/or fibrous reinforcing agents in the polymer composition that is used for the polymeric surface in order to ensure that the polymeric material has adequate mechanical properties such as stiffness, heat deflection temperature, and warp resistance. Thus it would be desirable to obtain an apparatus in which an electrically conductive contact is in slidable contact with a polymeric surface in which repeated physical contact of the contact with the surface leads to reduced abrasion of the surface of the electrically conductive contact.